


Kallipolis

by rosiegrey



Category: Ancient Greek Religion & Lore, Original Work
Genre: Animal Transformation, Artemis - Freeform, Epic Poetry, Forbidden Love, Iambic Heptameter, Kallipolis, Loosely based on the philosophy of Plato's Republic - a refutation, Original Character(s), Original Mythology, Original Poetry - Freeform, Other, Plato's Republic, Poetry, Rhyming, Romance, plato - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-07
Updated: 2020-03-07
Packaged: 2021-03-01 01:35:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 407
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23047105
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosiegrey/pseuds/rosiegrey
Summary: A young auxiliary in Plato's Kallipolis is in love with a young noblewoman, Chryseis. Kept apart by the metals of their souls, Chryseis and our narrator must escape the city in order to love each other in freedom.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 4





	Kallipolis

Good morning, my fair Chryseis, a noble woman whole  
Golden is your flash of hair, a swiftly swimming shoal  
Golden is your name, a path of light from whence you came,  
Golden is the metal of your brightly shining soul

I pass you in the morning and I pass you in the eve  
The fathers of your highest class we always must deceive  
The calculated whispers of your dusky yellow slippers  
Inspire me, your sky-bright eyes are all that I perceive

Once again I lose you to the starling-studded night  
Your fair skin disappearing in a flash of starry white  
Another day, another way to languish in my spirit grey  
My only wish is union in the time-worn marriage rite

Days and months, they ebb away into the sands of time  
Spirits hardly kept away by sacred hanging chimes  
Some nights I see you sighing, some nights I see you crying  
I watch the triremes come and go, forever maritime

But time will tell these peaceful days were fated soon to end  
Upon this sad discovery - a letter I had penned  
Your mother flew into a rage, your father put you in a cage  
An object, a mere trophy, you are made a dividend

And unto me, my slow demise will be a gift delivered  
For crimes committed by a lowly one whose soul is silvered  
I know the gory, grisly truth, she says my unbecoming sooth  
The consequence of writing down my ardor so unfiltered

My Chryseis, I run to you with milk splashed ‘cross the sky  
Artemis smiles down on me, laments as I pass by  
You slipped free from your bonds, you swiftly loping blonde,  
Embroidered gilt himation sweeping alabaster thighs

Racing hand in hand through surging starlit fields of rye  
You and I refuse to put our faith in noble lies  
I revel in your laugh, our wild tumble through the chaff  
Mirthful loving dulls the knowledge that we soon will die

The soldiers are approaching, so I clutch your silk-clad hip  
You pull me to your heaving chest, embrace me lip to lip  
My mind is addled very strange, a chirping sort of sea-borne change  
Orion fast approaches, we are wingtip to wingtip

Mercenaries lost in saline Greece’s verdant night abyss  
My love and I united in the dark ambrosial bliss  
We sing the song of nightingales, with downy starlight in our tails  
Two lovers freed beyond the walls of that kallipolis

**Author's Note:**

> This poem is inspired by how much I hate the class-based eugenics in Plato's Republic. Also, Chryseis means golden in Ancient Greek, in accordance with her soul. Symbols, yo.


End file.
